Campaigners battle to save historic pub
Campaigners are battling to save a Herefordshire pub regarded as having "national importance".
The grade-II listed Sun Inn in Leintwardine, near Ludlow, dates from the 18th Century, and for 74 years it was run by Florence Lane, who died recently. The pub had no bar and no till with beer being served directly from the casks and money paid into a row of jam jars.
Local residents, running the business in the interim, are concerned that the pub, one of only five "parlour pubs" left in England, will be bought by property developers who will turn the building into a residential complex.
The pub is set to go to auction with local agents Bill Jackson on 27 August.
Locals have got involved with Herefordshire branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), in an effort stop the pub being sold for development. A Camra spokesman said: "It is a pub of national importance. There is a consortium with the financial wherewithal who want to take it on and run it as it is. Our concern is that it is going to auction, and is priced highly for pubs in this area."
The pub is being marketed with a guide price of £250,000-£300,000.
Camra said it would object to planning permission being granted if the pub was sold to a developer.
The group is creating a website www.savethesun.org.uk and plans to set up a display at the Great British Beer Festival.
The pub is listed in the Good Beer Guide as a pub of outstanding national interest. The agent describes it as, "old fashioned and largely unaltered over the years". The pub has a parlour bar, owner's lounge, kitchen/beer cellar and four-bedroom first floor accommodation. The pub is set on a plot of land a third of an acre large.
